Barry uses House of Commons Debate to call on Government to publish Trade Bill

Posted by Barry Gardiner7pc on July 06, 2017

Barry has drawn attention to the fact that the Government has not published its Trade Bill, 7 months after the opposition first asked.

Leading for Labour in the General Debate on Exiting the European Union and Global Trade, Barry drew attention to the fact that the government has still not produced a Comprehensive Trade White Paper.

In the debate, Barry said:

“A year on, what has been achieved? It took Donald Trump’s Administration seven weeks to produce a trade policy paper. This maladministration has failed to do so in an entire year. I have now been asking the Secretary of State to produce a trade White Paper for seven months. How extraordinary it is that the Department for International Trade has existed for a year but has completely failed to set out its mission and vision in a White Paper so that British businesses can have some clarity about their future.​.. By providing comprehensive answers to all these questions and publishing an international trade White Paper, the Government may be able to restore business confidence in the fact that they are holding current trade dialogues and working groups that are backed by a clear and strategic plan. If not, it will reinforce the sense that the Government are blundering into this process without a clear endgame and lacking a strategic understanding of the issues at stake for the UK economy and for jobs in this country.”

If you want to find out more about the debate, you can find the full text of Barry's contribution here or watch it here.